Biomass for electricity or liquid fuel

I found this article during my weekly read literature hour.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/324/5930/1019.pdf

It concludes that using biomass to produce electricity and utilizing that electricity to power a car gives more miles/quantity of biomass compared to making a biomass into a liquid fuel. With this result, should we be focusing on electric cars? Also, we already have the infrastructure to deal with electricity. Wouldn't this be a better solution than having to install infrastructure for ethanol (some of the other biofuels function in the existing gasoline infrastructure for the most part)? How is electric car technology to date?

End of Quarter!

Now that the quarter is over, I realize I need to devote more time to researching many of the topics that may come up during the IGERT project next year.

Here's a partial list of things I need to investigate more thoroughly:

1. WA State Policy about renewable electricity
2. NW cap and trade
3. Kettle Falls Power Plant
4. Colville Tribe
   

It is now clearly summer in Seattle. Hopefully everyone is getting a good deal of Vitamin D to compensate for its winter dearth.

So I can't actually keep a blog going...

but it doesn't matter since no one really reads this.

Right now, I'm doing the current mass of biofuel reading for CFR 521 and in combination with the amount of Biofuel LCAs that I read for LCA seminar, I feel like biofuels have overtaken my life.

What interesting is that while we've been talking about the promise of second-generation fuels, the plants financed in 2005 still haven't been built. http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/87/8717cover.html

Here are a few other biofuel related websites I've been browsing.

ZeaChem - Just got some major VC action. Check out their process --> it has a bit of everything.
Dynamotive - I was a bit skeptical on biochar at first (I blame the crummy SeaChar brochure), but it's actually starting to seem legit. Especially looking at the Amazonian soils as a case study.
IGCC in Sweden - demonstration is over, so its been "mothballed" but here's the summary of the projects 6 yrs.

WSJ Energy Report

http://online.wsj.com/public/page/energy-environmental-investing.html

Check out ways to go "Green in Hard Times"

Weatherproofing, Low Flow Appliances and CFLs are all really cheap ways to save money and resources.

The Smart Grid trial in Boulder is also pretty interesting. Would knowing more about your power consumption make you change your ways?

(Clean?) Coal

So this IGERT's cohort is still searching for a focus/well-defined over-reaching goal. Since I'm pretty worn out on those issues right now, let's look at coal and what the heck is clean coal?

So first, a little bit of background on coal energy, then some articles about the future of clean coal and how some people feel about it.

• General Coal Statistics for the US
  
• The emission of green house gasses in the US link on the page is interesting: "The increase in U.S. carbon dioxide emissions in 2007 resulted primarily from two factors: unfavorable weather conditions, which increased demand for heating and cooling in buildings; and a drop in hydropower availability that led to greater reliance on fossil energy sources (coal and natural gas) for electricity generation, increasing the carbon intensity of the power supply."
• What the heck is "clean coal"?
  
• Highlights:
• The industry-sponsored American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity defines it as "any technology to reduce pollutants associated with the burning of coal that was not in widespread use" prior to regulations from 1990. By that definition, the group can call any newer coal-based power plant clean. Indeed, as the ACCCE never hesitates to point out, the nation's coal power plants are 70 percent "cleaner" than they were when it comes to regulated pollutants like sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxide.By that definition, the group can call any newer coal-based power plant clean. Indeed, as the ACCCE never hesitates to point out, the nation's coal power plants are 70 percent "cleaner" than they were when it comes to regulated pollutants like sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxide.
• Outside the industry, "clean coal" usually refers to something different: namely, the idea that the carbon dioxide produced from burning coal in power plants might be captured and stored, preventing it from contributing to climate change.
• The Future of Coal : Read the key findings!
  

• Fuel from Coal-Eating Microbes
• Canada's oil-sands boom creates vast riches and a dirty footprint
• Steven Chu: "Coal is my worst nightmare"
• Big Coal won’t be very happy if Dr. Chu gets confirmed as head of the DOE—he’s really, really not a big fan. “Coal is my worst nightmare,” he said repeatedly in a speech earlier this year outlining his lab’s alternative-energy approaches.

  If coal is to stay part of the world’s energy mix, he says, clean-coal technologies must be developed. But he’s not very optimistic: “It’s not guaranteed we have a solution for coal,” he concluded, given the sheer scope of the challenge of economically storing billions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions underground.

• 'Clean' Coal? Don't try to Shovel That?

Bio-Energy

Since I'm part of a Bio-Energy IGERT here at UW in Seattle, I'd like to dedicate part of this blog to information about Sustainable Energy Technology, especially the emerging bio-energy research, so look for links to articles on these topics.

To start this off a brief look at Wind Power:

• A Brief History of Wind Power
• Wind Energy Bumps into Power Grid's Limits
• Wind Power May Gain Footing Off Coast of US
• A Land Rush in Wyoming is Spurred by Wind Power
• In Rural New York, Windmills Can Bring Whiff of Corruption
• Energy Goals a Moving Target for States
• Quinnipiac University adds Silent Wind Power
  

I (Heart) the Economist

I have to thank my former roommate, Michelle, whose consistent Economist article finds made my look to it for interesting and well-written pieces.

A Few Interesting Articles from the Economist

• How Perfumes Work- The Scent of a Man
• Balls and Brains